The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-12-31
cOURTSHIP IN ENGLAND.
All the Year Round.

In her second season, young lady's pretensions are apt to undergo consid- erable modification; if the highest game be beyond her mark, she resigns herself to the inevitable, and casts her nets elsewhere. Except as a matter of form, she no longer needs a chap eron, her own hardly earned expe- rience enabling her to distinguish be- tween the men who are worth angling for, and those who are not. On the other hand, her prestige as a debu- tdnte is gone in addition to her still unmarried contemporaries, she has to contend against host of new corners, perhaps better looking, and certainly younger than herself; and, unless ex- ceptionally fortunate, can hardly fail to be worsted in the struggle.
 In the latter case, her best resource is country house, where she has fewer rivals, and a sympathizing chaperon in the person of her hostess, who is invaribly a matchmaker at heart. Anxious to give her guest as many chances as possible, the chatelaine reg ulates her invitations accordingly, taking especial care that, as far as the female contingent is concerned, the party shall include no one likely to stand in her protege's way. A mar ried couple or two, and perhaps a spinster verging on maturity, but with plenty of "go" in her, with the usual make weights in the shape of country neighbors, will amply suffice to entertain each other, leaving the young lady perfectly free to exercise her Vaccinations on whichever of the judiciously chosen bachelors she may elect to favor. Opportunities for quiet strolls and stolen interviews are never wanting, and it would be doing her injustice to suppose her capable ot emitting to profit by them. If she be coquettishly inclined, she may, possibly, by way of eliciting a pro- posal from one admirer, bestow an oc- casional smile of encouragement on another-a dangerous game to play, for if either of the interested parties happen to detect the mannuver, it is quite on the cards that she may lose both. Nevertheless, It sometimes an- swers to have two strings to ones bow, and we remember case in point.
 Some two or three years ago, a pretty, but dowerless damsel, whose third season in London, like the pre- ceding ones, had been-matrimonally speaking-a failure, was invited by lady friend to pass the month of Octo- Der at her country mansion, situated in one of the most picturesque locali- ties in the west of England. "I have asked Lord Many lands to meet you" wrote her hostess and, as he certainly admires you in his undemonstrative way, l do trust, my dear Evy, that something will come out of it.'
 Now, Mis- Evelyn Davenport was very practical girl, whose favorite maxims were, "not to waste time in following a torlorn hope," and, "neper to throw chance away" Her object was to get married, and if she had not hitherto succeeded in attaining it, we may be sure that it was no fault of hers. Counting by years, she was barely one-and- twenty, but in the matter of experience and knowledge of the world, she was by no means novice, and had very distinct ideas as to the relative merits of substance and shadow. So that, when about to join the party at Catherington court, she was fully prepared to shape her course according to circumstances, and while naturally devoting her chief ef- forts to the conquest of Lord Many lands, on no account to neglect any available substitute who might fall in her way.
 Before she had been established many hours in her new quarters Miss Davenport had satisfied herself on two important points; first, that of the half-dozen girls present she was in- disputably the best-looking and the most becomingly dressed and, sec- ondly, that the only specimen of the male genus besides Lord Manylands worthy of her consideration-not talk ing into account curate, trio of "plungers" from the neighboring country town, and sporting baronet intent on retrieving his dilapidated fortune by a "coup" on one or other of the an- tumn handicaps-was MT. Edward Trevor, a young man of good family and, as Lady Catherington informed her, owner of fairly extensive prop erty few miles from the court. "He might do to fall back upon," she thought, and received him graciously when he was presented to her not at all displeased by the involuntary glance of admiration he was either unable or unwilling to repress. Mean while Lord Manylands, who, until Evelyn's arrival, had shown no par ticular liking for the society of his fellow guests, and had mentally voted the whole thing bore, felt consider